Alejandro Muñoz

These generative illustrations emerged from a deep aesthetic impression left by my time in Aotearoa New Zealand between 2015 and 2017. While they do not depict or replicate any specific Māori forms or symbols, their flowing, modular lines echo—however distantly—the hand-carved grace I witnessed in the whakairo (carvings) of Kaikōura and the meeting houses of the North Island. There, in the quiet presence of ancestral woodwork, I felt the weight and warmth of stories shaped by generations. This series is a humble homage to that encounter: an attempt to translate the spirit of hand-hewn curves into algorithmic gestures, always with reverence and without claim.

“In Kaikōura, the mountains meet the sea—and the wood remembers.”

Ko ēnei whakaahua whakaputangia i puta mai i tētahi whakaahua āhua hōhonu i waihanga i taku wā ki Aotearoa, Niu Tīreni i waenganui i ngā tau 2015 me 2017. Ahakoa kāore ēnei e whakaatu, e tārua rānei i ētahi āhua Māori motuhake, tohu rānei, ko ō rātou raina rewa, rewa hoki e whakaahua ana—ahakoa heke noa—i te āhua reka o ngā whakairo ringa i Kaikōura me ngā wharenui o te Motu Rāwhiti. I reira, i te tūturu o ngā rākau tūpuna, i rongo ahau i te taumata me te mahana o ngā kōrero i hangaia e ngā whakapapa. Ko tēnei kohinga he whakaahua whakarangatira ki taua huihuinga: he whakamātau kia whakawhitinga i te wairua o ngā raina ringa ki ngā nekehanga whakaputangia, i ngā wā katoa me te whakaute, kāore hoki he whakapae.

“I Kaikōura, ka tūtaki ngā maunga me te moana—ā, ka mahara te rākau.”